Deeplinks Blog posts about International

This January 28marks International PrivacyDay. Different countriesaroundtheworld are celebrating this day with their own events. This year, we are honoring the day by calling attention to recent international privacy threats and interviewing data protection authorities, government officials, and activists to gain insight into various aspects of privacy rights and related legislation in their own respective countries.

Throughout history, there have been a number of reasons why individuals have taken to writing or producing art under a pseudonym. In the 18th century, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay took on the pseudonym Publius to publish The Federalist Papers. In 19th century England, pseudonyms allowed women--like the Brontë sisters, who initially published under Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell--to be taken seriously as writers.

This January 28marks International PrivacyDay. Different countriesaroundtheworld are celebrating this day with their own events. This year, we are honoring the day by calling attention to recent international privacy threats and interviewing data protection authorities, government officials, and activists to gain insight into various aspects of privacy rights and related legislation in their own respective countries.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, Ethiopian blogger Elias Kifle was handed a life sentence in absentia this week for his coverage of banned opposition groups. Kifle, who lives in the United States, is editor of the Washington-based opposition website Ethiopian Review and was previously handed a life sentence, in 2007, on charges of treason. Kifle was sentenced along with columnist Reeyot Alemu and editor Woubshet Taye, both of whom live and work in Ethiopia and received 14-year prison sentences.

EFF condemns the decision by the Addis Ababa court and echoes CPJ's call to the Supreme Court to reverse the convictions.

Yesterday, Twitter announced in a blog post that it was launching a system that would allow the company to take down content on a country-by-country basis, as opposed to taking it down across the Twitter system. The Internet immediately exploded with allegations of censorship, conspiracy theories about Twitter’s Saudi investors and automated content filtering, and calls for a January 28 protest. One thing is clear: there is widespread confusion over Twitter's new policy and what its implications are for freedom of expression all over the world.